Roman Fusco is a savant of designing Control for Standard.

If you've been following our collective adventures for... What is it at this point? More than two years? You know that he flicked the first domino by visiting me here in Brooklyn to win something called Store Championships; then both of us followed up with multiple RCQ wins with all manner of support cards as long as Restless Anchorage and Get Lost have been legal in Standard.

Roman most recently flubbed his Modern RC qualification, but he re-qualified almost immediately with what looks like the best deck to play in Standard. Well Simic Cub is also really good. The main differences are 1) I think if you're a master you'll win a bit more with Azorius, but 2) it takes 3-5 minutes to win a game with Cub, whereas every Azorius game is going to take 22-27 minutes. But hey! If you love spending your time playing Magic, etc. etc.

Anyway, I've been playing a lot of his Azorius deck...

Iceberg Control | TLA Standard | Roman Fusco

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 2 Marang River Regent // Coil and Catch
• 1 Essence Scatter
• 3 Three Steps Ahead
• 4 Consult the Star Charts
• 4 Get Lost
• 4 No More Lies

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Elspeth, Storm Slayer

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Split Up
• 2 Day of Judgment
• 2 Stock Up
• 2 Ultima

• Enchantments (5)
• 2 Seam Rip
• 3 Aang's Iceberg

• Lands (26)
• 4 Island
• 4 Plains
• 1 Agna Qel'a
• 2 Demolition Field
• 2 Fountainport
• 2 Multiversal Passage
• 3 Restless Anchorage
• 4 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Meticulous Archive

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Devout Decree
• 1 Sphinx of the Final Word
• 1 Flashfreeze
• 1 Tishana's Tidebinder
• 1 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 1 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 2 Authority of the Consuls
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 1 Lyra Dawnbringer
• 1 Riverchurn Monument
• 1 Negate
• 2 Voice of Victory

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The only change I've made to the main deck was -1 Split Up (Split Up sucks) / +1 Aang's Iceberg (Aang's Iceberg is a format-transformative card). It has served me kindly.

One of the reasons that Roman's Control masterpiece takes so much longer to win games than a straightforward deck like Simic Cub is that you're constantly forced to ask yourself questions. You're always "doing something" or at least thinking about what you're going to do next / next turn... Whether or not it looks like you're advancing your position on the battlefield.

In this article I'll talk about the five most important questions I ask myself - some of them over and over in a single game - every game:

1. Which Land Do I Play First?
2. How Do I Get to turn four / five?
3. How Can I Milk This Ultima for Maximum Misery?
4. Which Two Cards Do I Take Here?
5. Can I Win By More-sides?

Which Land Do I Play First?

Let's start just by looking at some opening hands. Which would you play on the first turn?

At this point we don't know what deck our opponent is, and by extension, whether or not Day of Judgment will be any good.

That said, this is a near-perfect opening hand. In the dark I'd put myself at winning this game in the vast majority of situations. I think my only fuzzy areas might be against Superior Spider-Man if they draw Cavern of Souls; if the opponent is specifically playing an anti-Azorius Mill deck; or to be fair, some Dimir draws. But probably the main reason Roman and I have done well in the last couple of years in Standard is just going first with No More Lies.

So, the first hurdle is being able to cast No More Lies. Presuming you don't draw a land on turn two, the only way you can fail to cast that card is if you go Plains into Meticulous Archive. Plains on turn one will enable Agna Qel'a on turn two. But that's not optimal IMO.

Have you decided what land you'd play?

Again, we don't know what we're up against, so Meticulous Archive is going to be a dual edged sword on the first turn, but I'd still play it on the firs turn. We get a look for our fourth land immediately, which we may or may not take. But presuming we don't draw more lands, Meticulous Archive, then Plains, then Agna Qel'a sets us up for No More Lies on turn two into Three Steps Ahead on turn three. Or if the opponent isn't doing anything interesting, we can take off turn three to Stock Up into our fourth land.

Imagine the opponent is playing one of the Llanowar Elves / Badgermole Cub decks; doesn't have to be Simic... We can't stop them from playing first turn Llanowar Elves, but we can stop their turn two play (if we want to), and Day of Judgment is a great catch-up card against the format's many creature decks.

How about this one?

We've already gone second here and the opponent has done their worst. We also have Ultima.

What would you do here and what are you planning for?

I'd play Agna Qel'a first.

Agna Qel'a then Plains and Plains then Agna Qel'a aren't too different, though. The important things are 1) our No More Lies is going to be slow, but it's probably not too slow to stop an Ouroboroid on the opponent's turn three. We have two excellent catch-up cards, so it's okay to let the opponent get a little bit ahead. But we can't be too greedy or we're not going to live long enough to land them.

One of our catch-up cards is Beza, the Bounding Spring. It probably wouldn't come up in this sample hand (because our opponent just played a Llanowar Elves on the play). But an important land-question for this deck is when to pay two life with our Multiversal Passage. We don't have Hallowed Fountain (yet) but we do have the lame Spider-Man version that anyone can play. It is surprisingly correct to blow two life to get four life later in the game; or sometimes, of course, just to have more mana open the next turn.

How Do I Get to turn four / five?

Let's think back at the opening hand we just examined.

We have Ultima.

We in fact have Ultima in a matchup where sweep is good AND we can get bonus card advantage from the opponent's Badgermole Cubs.

We're going to get paid. We just need to 1) live until turn five, 2) hopefully with five lands in play. One of those we can affect more readily than the other.

Quesion 3 is How Can I Milk This Ultima for Maximum Misery? but weirdly this question is the quasi-opposite. We don't need to milk our Ultima. In fact, we're going to get extra squeeze out of it if the opponent earthbends! We just need to live to cast our Ultima and we're going to be fine most of the time.

Look at Aang's Iceberg.

Look to some degree think about No More Lies.

Any time you one-for-one leading up into an Ultima, that is one fewer card you're milking out of the opponent. But Simic is a matchup where your Ultima is likely to resolve (not guaranteed, but likely), and is abnormally devastating if it does resolve.

One of the reasons Roman's deck takes so long to win is because Questions 2 and 3 are in conflict with one another and you have to figure out which universe you're in. But another reason is that it is kind of thin for finishers. With this hand it's not out of the question that we throw Beza and whatever comes with Beza into the bin just to live long enough to cast Ultima. Which, again, would be devastating to our Simic opponent... But is not doing us any favors in the speed-to-close department.

How Can I Milk This Ultima for Maximum Misery?

Roman's deck plays two copies of Day of Judgment and two copies of Ultima, which dictated the wording of the previous question.

But the important card is Ultima, because Ultima is awesome. I'm kind of dubious about the Azorius Artifacts cousin to this deck; but that variation can play four copies of Pinnacle Starcage; which is one of the best cards against Pawpatch Recruit, Badgermole Cub, and so on.

Most of the Azorius Artifacts players also run multiple copies of Authority of the Consuls, which seems annoying but ultimately irrelevant in most matchups. Though it's great in the Artifacts mirror, where it will effectively counter The Fire Crystal.

Ultima is great in this deck because Azorius Artifacts exists... But also refers to Ultimas in the opponent's deck.

So, this question becomes the interplay between Ultima and Aang's Iceberg. In the past, you might need to not only draw but play three copies of Ultima AND hit two copies of Simulacrum Synthesizer with one of them in order to overcome Azorius Artifacts. But with Aang's Iceberg it has become very easy to pin every key threat in that deck. The very existence of Aang's Iceberg transforms both the Azorius Artifacts and Dimir matchups. The Iceberg gives you more outs to Kaito and Enduring Curiosity.

It is also an amazing foil to the opponent's Ultima!

Remember a moment ago I was talking about life point management with your own Beza, the Bounding Spring?

Beza is really important in some matchups; most notably Jeskai Control and Four-Color Jeskai. The opponent might start pointing Lightning Helix at you on turn two! One Beza will undo more than a burn spell out of the opponent. But you can extract EVEN MORE maximum misery if you're clever.

You might not be able to counter Inevitable Defeat... But have you ever tried exiling your own Beza in response to that card? You'll have spent three mana to the opponent's four while stopping not only their Beza-killer but one of a finite number of direct damage cards that they were kind of planning to hit you with. The fact that you will in all likelihood get another life gain trigger out of the same Beza is just gravy.

Which Two Cards Do I Take Here?

The sub-question is whether you should ever Consult the Star Charts for one card.

The short answer is no; but of course you'll be forced to sometimes. Most notably when you need to dig for a Counterspell to prevent losing the game AND you need mana to cast the aforementioned Counterspell.

Generally, though I'd recommend you are patient and avoid casting Consult the Star Charts for only one card. I see streamers doing this all the time because they happen to have spare mana, and they don't realize the degree to which this behavior overlaps their game losses.

The issue is that casing the card draw in the Azorius deck is highly strategic.

Generally, I will go for a draw-two (Consult, Stock Up, Marang River Regent) and a relevant interactive card. Though maybe 40% of the time I'll take a draw-two and a land. This really depends on how many lands I already have in hand and how many relevant interactive spells.

It's important that you keep taking draw-twos or you're quickly going to be out-paced. Almost every other deck in the format has greater threat density than you on the basis of playing fewer lands. So, if you aren't drawing an extra card at least every other turn come the mid-game, you're just going to run out. The exception of course is if you already have a draw-two or two in reserve; at which point it's more important to make sure you keep hitting your land drops.

Can I Win By More-Sies?

More-sies is a concept where one deck has more answers or durability than the other deck has threats. Battle of Wits was a classic deck that could win by more-sies; because it was over 200 cards, that deck could often win by Control rather than Combo. It just had more "stuff" than the other guy.

The easiest deck to beat by more-sies in Standard is Azorius Artifacts. While they can technically win with Spring-Loaded Sawblades // Bladewheel Chariot or Clay-Fired Bricks // Cosmium Kiln, you're pretty unlikely to lose to those cards relative to their main offensive engine. Luckily with 4 Aang's Iceberg and 2 Ultima (not to mention the odd Counterspell), it's not difficult to just remove all their Simulacrum Synthesizers.

But other decks can be more-sies'd out if you're clever. What about Jeskai? Four-color? How many copies of Jeskai Revelation do you think they play? That's maybe 12 life points. One Beza is like countering one of those. They probably have 12 points in Lightning Helixes and another 12 in Inevitable Defeats (maybe). How many of those do you have to Counter before they can't win any more?

The answer might surprise you!

But, oh sweet summer child, these are just the questions a successful Azorius mage is asking themselves constantly. There are others that you don't want to be asking yourself at all, probably. Like...

Can I beat a Singularity Rupture (yes); how about a third one (maybe); what if they also have Riverchurn Monument (probably not). You might not be beating them, but if it's any consolation, I don't see how they're beating anyone else.

The implication of course is that with even one unlucky tap of a Riverchurn Monument (that you contain the next turn with Seam Rip) the opponent can have more-sies on you.

LOVE

MIKE